User blog:Golden8King/Back To Da Rooz!!
Please excuse my bad english, it's unintentional (it's 100% intentional and this is actually a joke to make the title of the blog sound more funny - if it wasn't, I apologize for that). But I think you get the cheese I'm trying to sell: Let's get back to the roots so let me talk about my impressions on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. This is like a mix between listing what I thought to be "bad" (not as good as Brawl but still very good, that's why I put "bad") and listing what I'd do different if I was asked to direct a sequel. Of course, this does not include saying "I'd include Knack cuz I like him, Sephiroth, Sora, blah blah blah" No, not that but true innovation and features. There's no pretending and trying to hide it. As a Nintendo fanboy who I just am, I just couldn't keep myself from comparing this game to the SSB series. I've heard many people and friends of mine, both in real life and online, talking about a SSB clone before PSASBR was released. Fat Princess is this game's Peach, Kratos is this game's Link and so on. This didn't stop when the game was released and I bought nonetheless cause I'm, next to being a Nintendo fanboy, playing games on all consoles, whether it's Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft and grew to love some of Sony's franchises over the years, such as Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper or MediEvil. And so I grew to actually like this game, it isn't one of my favorites but none of the SSB games, I'd consider to be my favorites because it takes something more for me to call it my favorite than them being a mascot mix-up. Anyway, now for the actual "review": I really liked the playstyle. It made it clear that it isn't a clone of SSB like that Cartoon Network SSB clone (maybe I'll review it in a few days, maybe not) but it isn't a strict fighting game either. It's something different and I love it for that. The idea was great. I also enjoyed the mixing of two franchises in one stage, which, however, resulted in one of my negative points. I liked the rivalry concept much more than I do SSB's Classic Mode. I also prefer Polygon Man over Masterhand since I like comedic and referencing villains over serious ones. I also thought the roster to be ... meh, they had some forgotten stars like Parappa or Fortesque but I'll cover that later. I also liked that there were some third partys like Heihachi or Raiden. But what I thought to be its best feature was its voice acting and the charme and references that were put into the characters. They feel like directly stripped out of their universes, unlike SSB were this isn't that well represented. Plus, the customes were really good and clever as well. Certainly wished Sakurai got some inspiration from there. But now, for some negative points. Let me start out with a relatively neutral point: The roster. I can understand, one character per franchise. But I ask myself - why? Other characters have some quality, too, like Dr. Nefarious or Bentley. These could have been some great characters and the developers showed that they were allowed to use more than one character per franchise like in InFamous's or God of War's case. They wasted a lot of potential there. Plus, 24 characters in total ain't that much when compared (sorry) to Brawl. I mean, this is major crossover here where the developers have the task to show what the PlayStation series has to offer. They have highly acclaimed franchises such God of War, Sly Cooper or Uncharted and don't go all out with it. The same goes for the item selection. Not that much but, well, it doesn't show the true potential of the PlayStation, its franchises, accomplishments. And now for the two big negative points. Let me start out by saying: I enjoyed several of the game's stages. The Graveyard, Hades, Dojo, Paris and Dreamscape. Again, I really like, if not love, their concept. However, deep down, beyond franchise representation, I eventually grew to see them as repetitive. Look at Brawl, there we have insanely large stages, small stages, moving stages, traveling stages and so on. However, the stages of PSASBR introcuded almost one and the same theme: The first franchise introduces the setting and layout, the second franchise the hazard. It was almost always the same, no matter where. No matter if it's Paris, Dreamscape, Columbia. The only two exceptions were Stowaways and, my favorite, Alden's Tower, the most unique of the bunch. Or Hades, the first franchise introduces both while Patapon introduces ??? (no seriously, what did the Patapons do besides distracting Hades?). Anyway, that is one point and the other one is: The lack of modes and unlockables: Something that keeps me going in a videogame is unlocking stuff. Here, you have everything unlocked right away. What is the point of actually playing it then? (That was also why I almost never played the Battle Mode in Mario Kart until MK8) I played it anyway, grew with my mains such as Sackboy or Sly in the levels. Again, compared to Brawl - what does Brawl have? A story mode I didn't really enjoy, tons of collectibles such as trophies, stickers and even some demos of master pieces. Why Sony didn't you include this? Even if it is stealing ideas from Nintendo - you never had a problem with that, why not this time? You didn't even have to do trophies. Maybe photos, data or just descriptions of the appearing characters. Then, we have the event matches, target break and many other things besides the actual game. You had so much potential and that's what I'd change if I was asked to do a sequel: #Create a bigger roster (around 40 to 49) #Do more unique and different stages #Do trophy-like collectibles #Create minigames #Include demos of games like MediEvil, Parappa the Rapper or maybe even Ratchet and Clank #Create more items #Do more DLC! #And lastly, do more third party characters (I just had to make that point) #All of the above, do something different than SSB's modes, minigames and stuff So with 9 instead of the 10 usual point, all that I left for me to say is ... PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale 7.5/10 Category:Blog posts